There’s a whole lot of songs out there about California, either romanticizing it as a sun-soaked paradise or pulling back the veneer to expose its less-than-perfect underbelly. Human People’s contribution to the canon sits somewhere between the two. “California” is the new single from the band’s upcoming debut album, Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears — they shared a video for “Radiator Water” from it last fall — and the New York-based band crackles with the tension that’s always existed between the coasts.

“I’m gonna go to Cali-fuckin’-fornia/ It’s where I will die,” Hayley Livingston drawls in the chorus. The band matches her disposition with a snarling snottiness, making California feel like just another dead-end stop on a road where the change of locale won’t fix whatever you’re unhappy with.

“This song is a little tongue in cheek and a little serious,” Livingston explains. “I intentionally wanted people to be able to take whatever meaning they could from it. It seems like I could love California, I could hate it, I could feel very weird and conflicted about it. But ultimately the song is about the negative feelings that you can have regardless of a pleasant setting.”